Harmonizing for Happiness: Finding Calm, Connection, and Joy Through Song
Harmonizing for Happiness: Finding Calm, Connection, and Joy Through Song is an interactive well-being workshop that invites all members of the Harvard community to explore how group singing can reduce stress, lift mood, and build a sense of connection—no musical experience required. Led by Center Student Engagement Committee member Priyam Bhushan Aturi, MPH ’26, this 50-minute session will combine a brief, accessible overview of the science behind singing and well-being with guided warm-ups, simple humming exercises, and inclusive group singing activities in a low-pressure, non-judgmental environment. Participants will have the chance to notice the emotional and physical effects of singing together, reflect as a group, and leave with practical tools—like humming or simple vocal exercises—that they can use in daily life to support their mental health and resilience. Lunch will be provided.
Speaker Information
Priyam Bhushan Aturi
Organizers
Redesigning Calm: Designing Nature-Inspired Spaces
Redesigning Calm invites members of the Harvard community to explore how our surroundings shape mental and physical well-being. Drawing inspiration from organic and landscape architecture that harmonize natural light, greenery, and spatial flow, alongside modern biophilic design, this hands-on workshop encourages participants to reimagine familiar built environment, such as campus study or personal spaces, through a restorative lens. Using sensory observation, art materials, and natural elements, participants will creatively redesign spaces to help ease stress and anxiety, promote calm, and restore focus.
This well-being workshop will be led by Center Student Engagement Committee member Olivia Song, MPH ’27. Pizza (and plants!) will be provided.
Speaker Information
Olivia Song
Organizers
Presented jointly with the Zhu Family Center for Global Cancer Prevention
In this timely panel, experts will take a look at healthy hydration. How can fluids such as clean drinking water, coffee, and tea boost health, while beverages such as alcohol, soda, and other sugary drinks raise health risks. And how do these choices potentially influence cancer risk? Tune in to this event – part of the Zhu Center’s month-long commemoration of World Cancer Day — to hear clear, evidence-based information.
Speaker Information
Moderator
About The Organizers
Psychotropic Medication Safety in Pregnancy: Moving Beyond Malformation Risk
Join us on Wednesday, May 6th for the Department of Epidemiology seminar series featuring Dr. Krista Huybrechts discussing Psychotropic Medication Safety in Pregnancy: Moving Beyond Malformation Risk.
Abstract: Psychotropic medication use during pregnancy has increased substantially, heightening the need for robust evidence to guide prescribing and to inform patients about the risks and benefits of treatment continuation. Historically, research has focused on congenital malformations—paradigmatic harms in the shadow of the thalidomide catastrophe—but other unintended drug effects are equally important and pose distinct methodological challenges. This seminar will examine what we have learned about studying outcomes such as nonlive births and longterm neurodevelopment in children, highlighting study design challenges, potential biases, and data issues that shape inferences about psychotropic medication safety in pregnancy.
Bio: Krista Huybrechts is Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She co-founded and co-directs the Harvard Program on Perinatal and Pediatric Pharmacoepidemiology (H4P). Her work, which is funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health, focuses on the use of advanced epidemiological and statistical methods applied mainly to large databases derived from health data collected in the context of routine medical care to help address the unique questions regarding benefit-risk trade-off for prescription medication use faced by women of reproductive age and pregnant women.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Brown Bag Seminar: Parental mental health and childhood vaccination in India: Evidence from the SEHAT-CPHS Longitudinal Study
Henry Cust, PhD, is an economist working as a research scientist at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. His research operates at the intersection of health and development economics with a focus on critical global health issues including antimicrobial resistance (AMR), HIV, mental health, and risky health behaviors. Utilizing both experimental and quasi-experimental methods, Henry’s work aims to strengthen health systems and improve health outcomes, especially among vulnerable populations.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Malaria, Climate, and COP: Takeaways from COP30
The Climate Change & Planetary Health Concentration invites you to their next Brown Bag Lunch Seminar:
Title: Malaria, Climate, and COP: Takeaways from COP30
Speaker: Marcia C. de Castro, Andelot Professor of Demography & Chair, Department of Global Health and Population; Faculty Associate, Salata Institute for Climate & Sustainability
Everyone is welcome, whether or not you are a part of the concentration. This seminar is in-person only.
Location: FXB G-12
Speaker Information
Organizers
Monday Nutrition Seminar | Integrating Multi-Omics and Blood-Based ATX(N) Biomarkers to Identify Precision Dietary Paths for Alzheimer’s Prevention in Harvard Cohorts
Please join the Department of Nutrition for the Monday Nutrition Seminar featuring Daniel Wang, MD, ScD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at HMS and Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition at HSPH. Dr. Wang’s talk—”Integrating Multi-Omics and Blood-Based ATX(N) Biomarkers to Identify Precision Dietary Paths for Alzheimer’s Prevention in Harvard Cohorts”—will take place on February 9 at 1:00pm ET in FXB G-13 and via Zoom (registration is required).
Healthy snacks will be provided, thanks to the generous support of the Wellbeing Project Fund from the Office of the Associate Provost for Student Affairs.
The Monday Nutrition Seminar Series is free and open to the public. If you plan to attend this event and do not have an active HUID, please fill out the registration form by 3:00pm ET on the Friday before the seminar to request a visitor pass to access the building.
Seminar speakers share their perspectives, they do not speak for Harvard.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Health journalism case study series with Gabriella Stern
Join us for part one of an engaging case study series led by Gabriella Stern, journalist and former Director of Communications at the World Health Organization. In this session, we’ll dig into a compelling piece of health journalism—how complex health topics are communicated to the public, what we can learn from journalistic choices, framing, and impact, and actionable-takeaways for your own health communication.
Lunch will be served.
Speakers will share their own perspectives; they do not speak for Harvard.
Speaker Information
Gabriella Stern
Organizers
Occupational and Environmental Medicine Grand Rounds
The Department of Environmental Health and the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency Program invite you to the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Grand Rounds.
Title: “Forever Chemicals on the Front Line: A Firefighter, a Public Health Crisis, and the Leadership Imperative”
Learning Objectives:
- Describe the toxicology, exposure pathways, and clinical health effects of PFAS, particularly in high-risk occupational groups such as firefighters.
- Apply an occupational and environmental medicine framework to the evaluation, testing interpretation, and longitudinal monitoring of PFAS-exposed patients.
- Integrate clinical science with public health leadership principles to inform decision-making during environmental contamination events, including regulatory navigation and crisis communication.
Presenter: Gabriel Carrillo, MD, JD, 1st Yr. OEM Resident
Discussant: Eli Avila, MD, JD, MPH, FCLM, Chief Federal Medical Officer, U.S. Department of Defense/DHA/Watervliet Arsenal;
Distinguished Visiting Professor, School of Health Sciences and Practice – Department of Public Health, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY; Fellow, New York Academy of Medicine
Location: Building 1, Room 1302 and Zoom
RSVP: Please click here to register.
CMEs for US licensed physicians
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Chan Education and Research Center. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health designates this live activity for 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Speaker Information
Organizers
Occupational and Environmental Medicine Grand Rounds
The Department of Environmental Health and the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency Program invite you to the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Grand Rounds.
Title: “Injury at Work vs. Work-Related Injury: Clinical Causation Analysis in Occupational Medicine”
Learning Objectives:
Attendees will be able to…
- Differentiate workplace injury events from medically work-related causation using a structured clinical framework.
- Analyze musculoskeletal and neurologic presentations to determine whether job activities plausibly explain pathology.
- Identify clinical red flags suggesting systemic, degenerative, or non-occupational contributors to injury.
Presenter: Hariprasad Korsapati, MD, OEM Complementary Pathway Resident
Discussant: Russell Tontz, MD, Occupational & Environmental Medicine Provider, Cambridge Health Alliance
Location: Building 1, Room 1302 and Zoom
RSVP: Please click here to register.
CMEs for US licensed physicians
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Chan Education and Research Center. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health designates this live activity for 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.